Adventuring is the highlight of any adventurer’s career. After all, it’s in their title. But have you ever given thought to what your character is up to when he’s not braving abandoned crypts and slaying dastardly villains? Whether it be days, weeks, months, or years, time between adventures is bound to occasionally pass in every Dungeons and Dragons game.

Your character should put that time to use. He or she is one of the most capable beings in your dungeon master’s world. He wouldn’t just waste it away drinking at a bar and sitting in silence. Or maybe he would! That’s for you to decide. Having your character do something during downtime will enrich the fantasy world of your local tabletop, and might earn you some in-game rewards to boot.

10 Run A Business

Entrepreneurs rejoice! As well as anyone else who has a reason to buy someone’s business or create their own. After your party buys, inherits, or is rewarded with a business, the Dungeon Master’s Guide features a d100 table on page 129 that will allow them to run it between adventures.

Beware a low roll though, as a business might cost you as much as it could make you. Businesses are also more than a source of income. Maybe the players forge friendships with local townfolk or earn the rivalry of another company in town.

9 Progress Their Backstory

When you spend hours writing a detailed backstory chock full of interesting characters and the dungeon master never incorporates the smallest piece, it feels bad man. You may not be able to tell the dungeon master how to run his game, but you can show him/her your dedication to the backstory you created.

If your character’s backstory is so important, they would be pursuing answers in their downtime. Move your own backstory along behind the scenes, and just maybe your DM will see your persistence and include your backstory into an adventure.

8 Meet NPCs

Non-player characters are probably the most common means by which the dungeon master delivers information to the players. If you want to learn more about the game world you’re playing in, have your character spend downtime meeting the DM’s cast of characters.

Your dungeon master will appreciate your interest in what he’s been working on. Just as well, you may be able to establish a good rapport with NPCs, or learn something important about them, before the rest of the party meets them.

7 Buy Items

We’ve all been in one of those games that turned into a shopping spree. When players are content to sit at a table and haggle over items with your merchants, you know you’ve got them invested. That being said, it’s also not the most productive use of everyone’s precious game time.

In order to avoid your Dungeons and Dragons night turning into a trip to the mall, have your character purchase items at some point during downtime. Do your research in your free time away from the table, and the game will become more exciting for everyone involved.

6 Craft Magic Items

Players LOVE magic items. The only issue is that they can prove quite difficult to come across. Instead of waiting to stumble upon the exact item you want, why not spend your downtime crafting the item? Whether you can craft magic items or not is up to your dungeon master’s discretion. Even if he or she does say yes, the process isn’t exactly easy.

You’re going to need a formula for crafting the item, meet a minimum level equal to the item’s rarity, and be a spellcaster that’s able to cast any spell the item produces. On top of that, it’s going to cost you a lot of time and gold. For reference, crafting an uncommon item will cost you 20 days and 500 gold pieces.

5 Sow Rumors

It’s hard to depose a village’s miscreant leader when the villagers are all convinced that he’s a great person. In situations like these, a little rumor can go a very long way. Depending on the size of the town, sowing rumors might take as little as a couple of days or as long as an entire month.

It will also cost you a minimum of 1 gold piece per day to cover the cost of appearances, drinks, and other rumor sowing purchases. At the end of the time, your character makes a DC 15 deception check. On a success, you succeed in shifting the community’s viewpoint on the subject of your rumor towards more friendly or more hostile grounds.

4 Carouse

If you consider adventuring to be your character’s job, he or she might want to spend time between adventures kicking back. Attend some parties, get hammered drunk, gamble, or do anything else that keeps the terrors you face in the darkest of dungeons at bay. This time isn’t simply handwaved away though. The Dungeon Master’s Guide features a d100 table of outcomes that might happen as a result of your fun.

Let’s hope you strike it big at the gambling tables instead of drunkenly wandering into an alley full of thugs.

3 Build A Stronghold

A proper, well-established adventuring party needs a place to call home. If your characters enjoy one another’s company enough, you might just decide to move in together. Building your stronghold is going to take a lot of time and money, but once it’s done your party will always have a safe place to return.

At least, until the dungeon master has an enemy sneak their way in. Before you begin building anything, you’re going to need a plot of land. Once you’ve got that, the time and gold it will cost you to complete your stronghold varies widely based on how resplendent you want it to be. For example, a trading post will only cost you 5000gp while a palace is more along the lines of 500,000gp.

2 Research

Maybe your character stumbled across something in the last dungeon delve that’s piqued his or her interest. In order to find out more about this intriguing subject, you can spend your downtime in research.

Researching is one of the most dynamic downtime activities as the requirements for your research are entirely up to the dungeon master. Regardless of their decision, it’s a safe bet that there’s going to be some ability checks involved. Good luck with finding the answers you seek.

1 Perform Sacred Rites

If your character is more interested in the realms above the skies than the ones below them, performing sacred rites is the perfect downtime activity. Layperson members of a religion make sacrifices, offer tithes, or perform volunteer work in the name of their god.

Meanwhile, priests of a church such as clerics and paladins can hold ceremonies such as marriages, funerals, and masses. Becoming an active member in any community’s religion is a surefire way to make the people there like you.

Beyond that, if you perform sacred rites for at least 10 days you gain an excellent benefit. At the start of each day for the next 2d6 days, you gain dungeon master inspiration. Again, this benefit might be subject to dungeon master discretion. But in this debate, you’re on the side of rules as written (RAW) according to page 129 of the DMG. Suck on that fantasy god!

NEXT: Dungeons And Dragons: 8 Best Paladin Smites, Ranked